 Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys! Hey guys, Jeremy here with my review of The Last of Us Show. I know that I'm a bit behind. I actually was keeping up with it. I was watching the episodes pretty regularly. It took me a minute to kind of put my words into thought, and I actually had to watch a few different reviews from different reviewers to kind of get where I was coming from across. Now, one reviewer I actually would say that had a lot of good notes about it was Cosmonaut Variety Hour. Now, I like the guy's content. Do I agree with him every time? No, but that's something that any person as a critic or anyone who is viewing content should have critics or people who have opposing views to you or people who have different views to you. You can disagree with them, but you should still be able to have a sense of respect with them. If you guys want to check out his review, definitely would. If you want to watch mine first though, that would be appreciated. It wasn't until Cosmonaut's video came out that I actually was able to put into words exactly how I felt about this show. Is it good? Yes. Is it phenomenal? Eh. This show follows the game pretty good. The only big deviation they didn't do was the spores, which I was a little bit kind of hesitant about because that was one of the main reasons why the Cordyceps virus was able to spread because the air was literally toxic in some areas and you didn't even know it, but they were able to kind of throw in this food sort of subplot. But also they didn't want to do it because they didn't want to have the actors wearing face masks for a large portion of it. And I don't know, it would have only been a couple of scenes. Like you could have done it. Considering the infected almost disappear off the face of the earth after the fifth episode, that's something I'll get to later on in this review. The first five episodes I think are the best. Those are the best episodes, one because we are getting a lot more backstory about how things came to be. So that is both fun for people who are watching it for the first time and people who have played the game. And then episodes like number three or number five take elements that we knew but change them. And if not add on to them. I know that a lot of people got really freaking butt hurt. I realized the terminology there for the third episode and wham. This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. What the fuck were y'all whining about? They were gay in the fucking game. Why is everyone being so homophobic about it? I was amazed at the comments I was reading in certain conversations. The third episode has Bill and Frank and it talks about how they came to be as a couple and how they built their town, built their society and how they came to the end of their story. And in the game it's quite depressing and in the show it's also depressing but I find it is a much more symbolic, much more happy ending kind of way I feel. I actually like this episode. I like this aspect more than the game. I think this is one of the things that the show did better than the game. Another thing that the show did better than the game was building up the fear of the core concepts. Like the opening of the show is fucking phenomenal with Rachel Wise's brother from the mummy movies just giving you a chiller, a cold open. But then after the fifth episode the show basically doesn't do anything different from the game. It follows the game to a core except for any kind of encounters with infected which again I will talk about that in a minute. But the episode that actually probably got me the most excited was the fifth episode. Not only did it give a lot more of a backstory to the people who had taken over Pittsburgh. They weren't just, you know, ravagers or whatnot. They actually had their reasons for doing what they did. They were doing what they needed to do to keep themselves alive. But at the same time they were also bent on vengeance for things that Henry had done. And how that all came to be with that really cool night scene at the end of the fifth episode. I was standing on my feet. I was so excited for that. The show really did get the idea of what is keeping you alive. What is the very last element, the last of them that is keeping them going. But then after the fifth episode it follows the game to a T. They go to the university then there is a callback to Ellie's Pass for the left behind DLC almost to a T. Then there's the episode with the rather hungry group of people. That one is almost to a T. A little bit more of a backstory into them a little bit. And then the last episode pretty much the ending of the game. But I didn't feel the same thing. Now there is of course one aspect being I've already seen it. I've already seen things done. No offense to Pedro Pascal, but by God did the beginning of the game hit me. When Joel goes through that moment at the beginning before when everything's starting in the game, fucking Troy Baker delivered it. And that's because they had to redo this scene like several times. If you watch an interview with his he did this scene. God knows how many times it was the first take and I felt really good about it. And he's like, you know, said, okay, let's do it again. Then two weeks later he calls me. And he says, so we need to reshoot a scene. I'm like, cool with seeing what we're doing. And he just looks at me. I said, dude, don't do this to him. But then when they was all said and done they had to go back and do it again. And he did not want to. But he realized he had to and it just it showed. You know the part I'm talking about for those of you who have played the game. It's a fucking emotional role of coaster. And I realized that the reason why I wanted that first take to work was because I wanted everyone to look at me and go, wow, what an actor. And that's not what the scene needed. The scene actually works not because of me, but in spite of me. And that really is the marker and definition of working with a truly good director. Did the show do it well? Kind of. But it didn't do it as well. And it's just because I had seen it done better before. And that's the same with the ending. I feel that the ending got all of the points correct, but it just didn't feel like it earned it. Not enough had happened to really come to that drastic of ecocollusion. It didn't feel deserved unlike the game. And that is where I come back into the infected bit. I know some people said they didn't care that they didn't show the infected, but I'm not saying that it should have been regular zombie shit like The Walking Dead, but you needed to have more happen to them to get there. Like it was a nine episode run, but because it felt so short, it just didn't feel like you got there. There's a lot of bits missing. And that doesn't just include the elements of survival that they had to go through when it came from fighting off scavengers or fighting off infected, but also elements between Ellie and Joel and the show. There's a very key moment in the show where Joel says, you're not my daughter. And they walk out on each other. And in the game, Ellie runs to this house. Tommy and Joel have to go after her. They have to fight off infected and, uh, Fravigers there. And then when all the dust settles, then Joel and Ellie kind of have a making up moment. And they kind of understand why they need each other in the show. The next morning, Joel's just like, yeah, you know, if you still want to go, Ellie's like, yeah, sure. And it's just like that old bit, that giant fucking wedge that is supposed to be a moment for these characters to hate each other and to find a means inadvertently to become one again with each other. It just like, it is solved so fucking quickly. It almost gave me whiplash. I would have to say that that episode was probably one of my least favorite because it just took away this huge character development moment for the two of them. It started it and then it just like, eh, let's just solve it without anything. And it's why I think the ending is solid. It's good. It's like the game, but it's just missing the parts that made it what it was. And that is why I don't think it's as good as everyone says it is. Is it still good? Hell yeah. I really hope that the showrunners for the Halo show are watching this shit. I really hope you fucking were. Because my god, did you fuck it up? Now it is something to say that The Last of Us was already a pretty well written story. This was something that Neil Druckmann had worked on for nearly 20 years. So when you grind and you press and you convert that story element to the pearl that it was, that is The Last of Us. Of course, you're going to get something that could basically translate over into film quite easily. Another good example, The Martian. Have you ever read that Andy Weir novel? Remember reading the book and being like, you know what? Yeah, take out this bit, take out this bit, take out this bit, you've got a movie. And lo and behold, they took out those exact same elements and made that exact movie. So when it already was a foregone conclusion that the show was going to be good, I just feel that it should have had more episodes. And considering season two, obviously part two is going to get more episodes, more seasons, I kind of feel like, guys, why are you taking the story that's not as good and dragging that out even longer than it needs to be? I'm not one of those people who thinks that Last of Us Part Two is a flaming piece of dog shit. It is a beautifully rendered game. The gameplay, I feel, was 1.5 in terms of advancement. And I think the story just was like, ooh, revenge bad. It wasn't anything exceptional. It wasn't dog shit. It just was not anywhere near in the same caliber as the first one. So the fact that is going to be drawn out, maybe they might change shit up. Maybe they might, I don't know. God help the person who plays Abby. Oh, you are stepping into lava, literal lava. And it's not just because you're going to have people who are just haters out there. You're also going to just have people who just did not like that character. But in the end, my final rating for HBO's The Last of Us is a five out of seven. Yeah, I think that the beginning of it is solid. I really enjoyed it up until episode five. And then after five from six to nine, it was kind of like, I know you're doing it right, but you're still missing something. But anyways, guys, those are my thoughts. What did you think about The Last of Us? Let me know in the comments below. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe. Until then, see you guys next time.